Sunday, June 29, 2014

On Monday morning, I woke up, checked the score of the USA vs Portugal game (it was 1-0 Portugal when I checked) and by the time I got ready and got to school, USA was leading 2-1 with 5 minutes left in regulation. I admit I'm not overly into soccer unless it's the Olympics or World Cup season, but I do enjoy a good game when I can. So I was watching when my handler came over. We talked a bit about how USA is in the death group and how South Korea is out, and then the teacher next to me was like "Oh, I forgot Christina's an American haha."

Unfortunately, in the last 30 seconds of the game, Portugal scored. Ugh. I also knew about this prior to seeing it, because my ESPN feed was delayed a few seconds, and I heard the sports teacher in my office say something and my handler say "엏떠게!" which is like "Oh no!" and then, when I saw it and said something like "darn it!" she came and patted me on the back haha. I'm kind of glad they spoiled it for me, or else I might have had a more, er, angry reaction haha. Instead I just shook my head and wallowed a bit, complaining how close we were to the win. Gotta play to the end though, and kudos to Portugal for not giving up.

I'm proud of USA so far, it just sucks to have victory so close and then lose it on the last pass of the game. Still cheering for them, since they advanced on!! Woohoo!!

Too bad the games are all at awful times- 1AM, 4AM and 7AM here. Wamp. I think now they're at 5 am, which is sooo much better. Sigh.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Classes are going well, even if it's devilishly hot in the classroom. Ugh. And I'm still making progress with my Korean lessons, so that's good.

On Monday and Thursday, we had an English Storytelling Contest at school, which I had to be the judge of. I hate judging and doing speaking tests, because I am lenient when the kid try hard, even if the English is not perfect. I cannot imagine trying to say all that stuff in Korean, so I feel for the kids. Most of them were pretty great anyway! I was super impressed.

my 4th graders waiting to tell their stories

a storm was brewing

the dessert I MUST try soon

I also got a care package from an awesome fellow Phantom of the Opera fan!

On Wednesday, we also had a teacher's cultural field trip, so we went to the Seoul Dream Energy Center and learned about sustainability

solar powered stuff. You could make the airplanes
move if you could hit them with light from the mirrors

generating water power

Mom sends me the best stuff

My students LOVED this outfit

I liked it a lot. Young Ah said it was very elegant!

Round 2 of storytelling, where I took more pictures cause the principal wasn't there.

And I randomly got a pen with my
school's name on it. Yay?

This squeeze cheese has been on my desk for
3 days and I have no idea why

waiting in line for the bus. aaah Friday rush hour

I had an.... interesting day Friday. I got to school and Young Ah wasn't there yet. She's sometimes running late, so when the bell rang, I just headed to class. Young Ah then texted me and said she was sick and couldn't come in, and then called me during the break. I told her I could handle it (so the schedule didn't get messed up), and so I ended up teaching mostly by myself on Friday. All. Day. The homeroom teachers stayed with me (I'm technically not allowed to be in the classroom by myself), but I was glad that I could manage without them. Thankfully, we were reviewing, so we just reviewed phrases and played a review game. Man, my voice was TIRED! I don't know how the homeroom teachers do it! Well, I had to talk a lot more because I had to repeat things 3-4 more times than the Korean teachers do, but hey. It all worked out.

I had had a long and stressful for no reason (besides Friday) kind of a week, so Lauren invited me over for dinner. We ended up watching Pocahontas and then going out for makgeoli and potato jeon, which is like a potato pancake? It was definitely the kind of night I needed.

we made pasta. Well she did, cause there's
only room for 1 person to cook in her
apartment

No, it's not milk. It's Makgeoli!

YUM

On Saturday, a bunch of us got together to celebrate Janell's birthday. What better way to do that than to go to an all male revue!?

Best decision I've made in Korea. Going to the Mr. Show.

It's like Chippendales but less lewd.
Much more toned down. Still lots of
shirtlessness. Yum.

They came out for pictures with some specially
selected girls in the audience. It was a random
drawin or something

All of us! We were the loudest and most appreciative
of the audience.

It was a pretty interesting, non typical Korean show. The director is pretty famous in Korea, and she arranged the show so there were 8 different dances that catered to women's fantasies, like jeans + Tshirt, military, etc. Plus, she had cast all different body types and styles, so that there was someone for everyone. There was an audience participation part, where we managed to get Janell on stage for her birthday. Her facial reactions were the best. It was awesome and if I got the chance, I'd definitely go again. hehehe. I'm sure they'd remember little ol' blonde haired me!

It's interesting because there are no men allowed, which at first sounds really sexist, but I watched an interview with the director, and she basically said that Korean women are too shy around men. They wouldn't be able to react naturally if their boyfriends or husbands came with them, so the director wanted to give them a safe place to express themselves and enjoy the fun side of desire. When she put it that way, it made sense, considering how reserved and shy Korean women are expected to be, especially about anything remotely sexual.

On Sunday, I went for another great adventure. My neighbor (who I helped with a grad school project) is an awesome guy who's been here for 7 years, so he knows a lot more than I do. He invited me to go paintballing on Sunday. Now, I've never played paintball, and so I thought, this might be fun.

I thought it would be a place in Seoul, but we ended up riding line 1 almost to the end, where Camp Casey is. Yep, 10 months in and I finally got on a base! So yeah, I ended up going up north to the military base. Apparently, there's a mountain near there that you can climb where you can see into North Korea.

We ended up playing speedball, which is
played in a blow up court.

All of us taking a break. It was HOT out there

Yeah, I got hit in the face.

AND THEN WE HAD REAL POPEYES. REAL,
AMERICAN POPEYES.
AND IT WAS AWESOME

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of us actually playing (you know, phone hazard. I did NOT want that to get hit haha) and since it was so hot, I looked grooooooss anyway, but I did get hit a lot (mostly cause I suck at paint ball), resulting in some lovely welts:

aftermath

stings a bit

It was fun, but a looooong day, since it takes almost 2 hours to get to the base, and another 2 to get back. I think if I played again, I'd definitely go for the kind that has more protection. Or play in the fall, when wearing layers is more feasible than in 85 degree heat. I still had a great time with some great people!

I was wearing a chestplate, so I don't even know how this
happened...

In other news, I'm obsessed with this drink. It's sweet and has
lots of fruits in it, and probably has something to do with
fiber? I dunno, but it's delicious.

So yeah, kind of stressful and busy week, totally awesome and jam packed weekend. I am kinda sad I didn't have as much time to wind down this weekend, but hey, I don't have anything Monday nights, so that shouldn't be too bad. Plus, my 4th graders have a field trip this Tuesday, so that eliminates another one of my busy days. It could be worse.

Can't believe it's almost July. Man is time flying. You stay cool out there everybody. I'll try to do the same. While risking fan death every night. Good times.

More B2ST this week, with a catchy song that I rock out to on my way to school.

About Me

I'm a short Italian girl with big dreams and a passion for travelling. I love Phantom of the Opera, video games, chocolate, my twin sister, and making witty remarks and funny faces.
I'm currently teaching English at an elementary school in Seoul, South Korea.